In case it wasn't obvious by the other reviews, Astrea is very reminiscent of Slay the Spire and Monster Train, being a deckbuilder where you advance through harder and harder encounters eventually arriving at boss fights. It uses dice rather than cards which certainly freshens the formula up a bit, and combined with the great art style and visuals, feels unique and interesting. I played during the beta and the game feels as good as it did then, it keeps the same fun and addictive feel as other games in this genre. The randomness is certainly a thing, but it doesn't feel any worse than drawing a bad hand of cards and you have a good degree of control over how random you want your 'deck' to be.

I would say that Astrea doesn't feel quite as polished as Slay the Spire and can seem a bit confusing at first, the base idea is simple enough, but understanding how the effects work together and what die are good to pick can take a bit, more so than Slay the Spire (where I found myself immediately understanding it). It can also get a bit messy later on, with you having multiple little followers and there being 3 or more enemies, and every single character on screen has multiple different effects happening and complex dice.. it gets quite difficult to keep up with what's going on and to me, feels a bit like a math lesson where you need to spent 2 minutes calculating all the damage before you can actually take your turn...

But overall I'd definitely recommend it, I think if it gets a few tweaks, Steam Workshop support and maybe a DLC here or there, it will absolutely be a must play! If you like Slay the Spire and/or Monster Train, you will really enjoy this!

In case it wasn't obvious by the other reviews, Astrea is very reminiscent of Slay the Spire and Monster Train, being a deckbuilder where you advance through harder and harder encounters eventually arriving at boss fights. It uses dice rather than cards which certainly freshens the formula up a bit, and combined with the great art style and visuals, feels unique and interesting. I played during the beta and the game feels as good as it did then, it keeps the same fun and addictive feel as other games in this genre. The randomness is certainly a thing, but it doesn't feel any worse than drawing a bad hand of cards and you have a good degree of control over how random you want your 'deck' to be. I would say that Astrea doesn't feel quite as polished as Slay the Spire and can seem a bit confusing at first, the base idea is simple enough, but understanding how the effects work together and what die are good to pick can take a bit, more so than Slay the Spire (where I found myself immediately understanding it). It can also get a bit messy later on, with you having multiple little followers and there being 3 or more enemies, and every single character on screen has multiple different effects happening and complex dice.. it gets quite difficult to keep up with what's going on and to me, feels a bit like a math lesson where you need to spent 2 minutes calculating all the damage before you can actually take your turn... But overall I'd definitely recommend it, I think if it gets a few tweaks, Steam Workshop support and maybe a DLC here or there, it will absolutely be a must play! If you like Slay the Spire and/or Monster Train, you will really enjoy this!